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Samsung is once again the leader in global smartphone shipments
Samsung reclaimed the title for most global smartphone shipments from Apple in the first quarter of 2024.
Apple dominated the wearables market over the holidays, IDC says
The wearable market in Q4 2020 grew by 27 percent over last year and the largest beneficiary of that, by far, was Apple, according to IDC.
The smartphone market is growing again
IDC (International Data Corporation) has announced that handset shipments reached 385.9 million in the final quarter of 2020, up 16 million year-over-year. Apple took pole position with 90.1 million smartphone shipments throughout the quarter. Samsung ranked second, with 73.9 million shipments and 19.1 percent market share, followed by Xiaomi and Oppo with 43.3 million and 33.8 million respectively.
Worldwide PC shipments grew due to work-from-home arrangements
The PC industry bounced back in the second quarter of 2020 after its weakest quarter in years mostly due to shelter-in-place orders prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. According to both Gartner and IDC, PC shipments grew year-over-year in the second quarter — the former says shipments totaled 64.8 million units (a 2.8 percent increase from Q2 2019), while IDC says global shipments reached 72.3 million units, which is 11.2 percent higher compared to the same period last year. Both organizations attribute the growth to PC production ramping up after supply chains were disrupted in the first quarter and to strong demand, now that more people need computers to work or study from home.
Worldwide smartphone sales showed 'biggest decline ever' in Q1 2020
Analysts estimated the Q1 drop in smartphone sales was between 11 and 17 percent -- the worst they've ever seen.
PC sales experienced annual growth for the first time in years
2019 was the first good year for the PC industry in a long while, according to both Gartner and IDC. It's the first time in seven years that the global PC market has experienced growth for the full year, Gartner says. IDC reported a similar finding, specifying that 2019's results show the first full year of PC growth since the market grew by 1.7 percent way back in 2011.
IDC: Wearable shipments nearly doubled thanks to earbuds like AirPods
If you hate the fact that you can't use wired earphones with a lot of mobile devices anymore, we've got bad news for you. We doubt phonemakers would change their minds about moving towards a future without headphone jacks -- not when global shipments for wearable devices nearly doubled, mostly thanks to wireless earbuds (like the AirPods) and headphones. According to IDC, 84.5 million wearable devices shipped in the third quarter of 2019. That's a 94.6 percent year-over-year increase and a new record for quarterly shipments.
IDC: Android smartwatches only rival Apple in China
If you're eyeing a smartwatch, there are virtually hundreds you can choose from -- but odds are high you'll flock to Apple. The Apple Watch has beat out the competition in the global smartwatch market and will continue to do so, according to estimates by research firm IDC. While Google's Wear OS and Samsung's Tizen continue to expand worldwide, Android smartwatches only sell really well in China. "Apple's [...] nearest competitors follow by a long margin," said Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC's wearables team to CNET. "Android also plays a big role here, but it's mostly known as a Chinese wearables platform."
Apple wasn't the only smartphone brand struggling in China this fall
Apple wasn't joking around when it warned that the Chinese smartphone market gave it grief in the fall. IDC estimated that iPhone shipments fell just shy of 20 percent year-over-year toward the end of 2018, hitting 11.8 million. It's the third consecutive year of declines, the analyst group said, blaming this year's drop on a combination of higher prices and relatively modest updates. Customers just weren't in as much of a rush to upgrade as they were in years past. Throw in China's economic woes and stiff competition from local rivals and it's not shocking that iPhone sales took a dive.
Lenovo retakes the top spot in PC shipments
Happy days are here again for Lenovo, though not for most of the PC industry. The Chinese tech firm has reclaimed the top spot for PC shipments in both Gartner and IDC market share estimates for the third quarter of the year, pushing past HP to scoop up roughly 24 percent of the market. The analyst groups chalked up the growth to both the addition of Fujitsu, better business PC sales and a smarter North American strategy. For most others, though, the season was a mixed bag.
Huawei supplants Apple as the second largest smartphone seller
While Huawei was already a smartphone giant, analyst numbers released today show that in the last quarter it pumped out more smartphones than any company in the world other than Samsung. IDC and Strategy Analytics found that smartphone sales slowed overall, a trend that hit Samsung the hardest of the big companies with its numbers dropping off by more than 10 percent from last year. In its earnings report yesterday, Samsung said it's moved the Galaxy Note 9 launch up as a result of lackluster Galaxy S9 sales, and it's planning new devices based on foldable OLED technology. Meanwhile, for Huawei a healthy reception for the P20 Series (we called the Pro version "the best smartphone you'll never buy") and the popularity of its midrange Nova devices delivered shipments of 54.2 million units. That beat their projections for Apple by more than 10 million and snagged 15 percent of the worldwide market. Both analysts found that while Apple's smartphone shipments grew, they aren't growing as fast as Huawei and its fellow Chinese company Xiaomi. It could look to pick up the pace with the new iPhones it launches this fall, particularly if they have features coveted in international markets like support for dual SIM cards.
Dell was the bright spot in a lousy winter for PC shipments
Sorry, folks, those hopes of the PC market making a comeback were short-lived. Both Gartner and IDC estimate that computer shipments were down in the first quarter of 2018, ranging from barely under zero growth (IDC) to a drop of 1.4 percent (Gartner). While the exact numbers vary (Gartner includes more tablets in its data than IDC, but not Chromebooks), there are some common themes. In particular, Dell came to the industry's rescue -- it was one of the few bright spots in a market where rivals either saw sluggish growth or declined.
New tech 'addictions' are mostly just old moral panic
The World Health Organization took an unprecedented step in January when it decided to include "gaming disorder" in its 11th International Classification of Diseases (IDC). Though doctors and researchers have examined the effects of heavy internet usage since the days when access arrived on AOL CDs, this marks the first time that the organization has listed this disorder as a mental health condition. Doing so could have far-reaching, and potentially negative, implications for how the disorder is diagnosed and treated.
Apple sold the most smartphones over the holidays
Smartphone sales were so slow during the holiday season of 2017, that Apple overtook Samsung to capture the first place in the market, according to IDC and Strategy Analytics. This, despite the fact that iPhone sales dropped during the holidays -- down 1.3 percent from the same period the year before -- and that the iPhone X hasn't been doing as well as Cupertino hoped for. Smartphone manufacturers apparently only shipped 403.5 million units during the holidays last year compared to 430.7 million units in 2016. Samsung, which usually sits at the top of the list, shipped 74.1 million phones in the last few months of 2017, down 4.4 percent from the year before.
Part shortages thwart the PC's sales recovery
So much for the PC industry bouncing back after years of decline. Analysts at Gartner and IDC estimate that computer shipments fell between 3.3 and 4.3 percent in the second quarter, resuming an otherwise unbroken slump. However, the drop wasn't due to the usual issues, like the rise of smartphones -- it was the knock-on effect of part shortages that killed dreams of a recovery. Component companies raised prices on parts like solid-state drives and LCDs to keep the supply-and-demand balance in check, and the resulting price hikes at some PC vendors led to people staying away.
The PC's 5-year slump might be coming to an end
For the past several years, the PC market has largely told the same dismal story: shipments are down, mobile is taking over the world, and there's no relief in sight. However, there's a glimmer of hope... depending on who you ask, anyway. IDC estimates that PC shipments increased by 0.6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017, marking the first such growth in 5 years. Reportedly, that's due to both better-than-expected shipments in multiple regions as well as strong commercial Chromebook sales in the US (think schools and businesses). It's cheerful news for the industry if accurate -- with that said, Gartner's researchers might just temper your enthusiasm.
PC shipments were still in the pits this holiday
So much for the PC world recovering from 2015's holiday disaster. Both Gartner and IDC estimate that worldwide computer shipments were down year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2016. The decline wasn't nearly as bad as it was a year ago (1.5 percent with IDC's methodology, 3.7 percent with Gartner's), but that's not saying much -- it just means that the industry didn't stay in freefall for long. Just why things turned out so glum varies depending on who you ask, though.
Demand for wearable tech is growing (but not for smartwatches)
If you were hoping the smartwatch market would bounce back from its recent slump when a slew of new models hit the market, you're about to be disappointed. IDC estimates that wearable device shipments grew ever so slightly (3.1 percent) in the third quarter of 2016, but that fitness trackers were almost exclusively responsible for the increase. Fitbit, Garmin and other activity band makers improved their shipments by the double digits, while the smartwatch world actually shrank.
Smartwatch shipments dropped ahead of new models
The smartwatch market isn't quite as red-hot as it looked in recent months. IDC estimates that smartwatch shipments fell by just shy of 52 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2016, with the biggest names often being the hardest hit. Apple was still the top dog, but its shipments fell almost 72 percent to 1.1 million. Samsung's shipments were virtually flat, while Lenovo and Pebble saw their unit numbers drop sharply. Interestingly, the only company in the top five to see a big surge was Garmin -- its shipments more than tripled to 600,000. Should the industry be worried? Not necessarily.
Apple builds an R&D center in China to survive a tough market
There's no question that China isn't as much of a money maker for Apple as it once was. However, it's not about to quit the country -- if anything, it's settling in for the long haul. The company has unveiled plans to build a Chinese research and development center by the end of the year. Just what it'll work on isn't evident at this stage, although it's part of an overall increased investment in Apple's second-largest market.
